ANTHROPOLOGY 
UP-TO-DATE 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

Up -To- Date 

-By 

George  Winter  Mitchell 

PROFESSOR     OF     CLASSICS 

QUEEN*S    UNIVERSITY 

KINGSTON,    CANADA 


1918 

The  Stratford  Company,  Publishers 

BOSTON 


Copyright   1918 

Tlie  STRATFORD  CO.,  Publishers 

Boston,   Mass. 


The  Alpine  Press,  Boston,  Mass.,   U.   S.   A, 


I'M 


To  the  Savages  of  Africa,  Poly- 
nesia, New  Zealand,  Australia  and 
the  Island  of  Borneo. 

^^Humani  nil  a  me  alienum  puto/' 

G.  W.  M. 


O  'vl  ^  K^  ij 


Preface. 

Gentle  Eeader,  if  you  wish  to  take 
the  subject  of  Anthropology  seri- 
ously, skip  everything  in  this  book 
but  the  foot-notes,  and  study  all  the 
works  of  the  authors  whom  I  have 
cited. 

G.  W.  Mitchell. 

Queen's  University, 
Kingston,  Canada. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Page 

I.     Definition 1 

II.     The  Founder  of  Anthropology    .  3 

III.  Method          6 

IV.  Magic 16 

V.    Rain-Making 21 

VI.    Names 25 

VII.     The  Origin  of  Magic      ...  27 

VIII.     The   Social  Unit       ....  30 

IX.     The  Origin  of  Exogamy       .       .  36 

X.     Anthropomoiphic  Gods  ...  41 

XI.     Religion 46 

XII.     Cannibalism 49 

XIII.  The  Power  of  Suggestion     .      .  52 

XIV.  Kings  and  Priests     ....  55 
XV.     Marriage  and  the  Gentler  Sex    .  57 

XVI.    Dress 61 

XVII.     Cookery 64 

XVIII.    Wedding    Rings,    Church    Bells, 

National  Flags     ....  67 

XIX.     Utility  of  Anthropology       .       .  73 
ix 


Chaptee  I. 

Definition. 

Anthropology  is  the  science  which 
studies  man  in  his  total  history  from 
the  days  before  the  foundation  of  the 
family  when  he  hunted  for  his  food 
in  packs  like  the  wolf,  and  when  in 
his  attempts  at  language  he  barked 
like  a  dog,  bellowed  like  a  bull,  or 
bleated  like  a  sheep.    It  follows  him 
through  all  the  stages  of  his  develop- 
ment  in   language,    institutions    and 
laws,  up  to  the  very  highest  refine- 
ments  of  vocal  and  ethical   culture, 
and  it  finds  that   even  in  the  very 
latest  stages  some  of  the  most  prim- 
itive sounds  and  customs  still  survive. 
On  the  operatic  stage  of  today,  par- 
ticularly in  the  Wagnerian  operas, 
you  may  hear  the  bellowing  of  bull- 
necked   tenors,   who   have    evidently 

[1] 


ANIHRCPOLOGY 

learnt  their  art  in  Bashan,  and  on 
the  amateur  concert  stage,  where  art 
has  not  sufficiently  disguised  nature, 
the  barking  of  the  baritone,  and  the 
squealing  and  bleating  of  the  so- 
prano, are  quite  convincing  proofs 
of  survivals, 
R.  S.  V.  P/ 


1  R.  S.  V.  P.  —  Riez  Si  Yous  Pouvez. 

[2] 


Chapter  II. 

The  Founder  of  Anthropology. 

The  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  gives 
Dr.  J.  C.  Pricliard  the  credit  of  being 
the  founder  of  modern  anthropology 
and  quotes  from  his  Natural  History 
of  Man,  which  was  written  in  1843 : — 

*^The  organized  world  presents  no 
contrasts  and  resemblances  more  re- 
markable than  those  which  we  dis- 
cover on  comparing  mankind  with  the 
inferior  tribes,  etc.'' 

And  in  his  appendix  to  Myth,  Rit- 
ual and  Religioyi  Andrew  Lang  is  in- 
clined to  ascribe  to  Fontenelle  the 
origin  of  anthropology,  or  at  least  its 
method  of  investigating  savage  be- 
liefs and  customs  for  the  elucidation 
of  many  things  which  we  do  not 
understand  in  the  higher  cultures. 
Fontenelle 's  essay  De  rOrigine  de 
Fables  is   quoted  as   saying  among 

[3] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

other  things  that  early  men^  were  in 
'^a  state  of  ahnost  inconceivable  sav- 
agery and  ignorance"  and  that  the 
Greek  myths  are  inherited  from  peo- 
ple in  that  condition.  '^Look  at  the 
Kaffirs  and  the  Iroquois  if  you  wish 
to  know  what  early  men  were  like, 
and  remember  that  even  the  Iroquois 
and  the  Kaffirs  are  people  with  a  long 
past,  with  knowledge  and  culture 
which  the  first  men  did  not  enjoy''. 

But  the  palm  must  be  given  to  Lu- 
cretius, who,  without  any  direct 
knowledge  of  savage  peoples,  and  with 
no  books  to  refer  to  on  the  subject, 
did  by  sheer  force  of  his  imagination 
reach  conclusions  in  regard  to  some 
beliefs  and  customs  of  primitive  men, 
which  have  only  recently  been  proved 
correct  by  actual  investigation  of 
savage  life. 

Many  ponderous  volumes  with  cop- 
ious illustrations  have  been  written  by 
modern  anthropologists  to  prove  that 
savages  learned  to  produce  fire  by  the 

[4] 


UP-TO-DATE 

friction  of  wood.  Still  more  ponder- 
ous volumes  from  every  quarter  of 
the  globe  prove  that  many  primitive 
peoples  have  obtained  their  belief  in 
spirits  and  gods  from  visions. 

Lucretius  told  us  all  that  in  two 
short  sentences  more  than  nineteen 
hundred  years  ago.^ 

But  after  all  Lucretius  was  only 
guessing,  and  if  you  take  into  account 
the  method  of  Anthropology,  which 
investigates  and  compares  the  man- 
ners and  customs  of  all  peoples,  sav- 
age, barbaric  and  civilized,  then  Hero- 
dotus is  the  Father  of  Anthropology 
as  he  is  also  the  Father  of  History. 
Some  writers,  but  they  are  not  up  to 
date,  assert  that  it  is  his  reputation 
as  the  Father  of  Lies  which  entitles 
Herodotus  to  be  hailed  as  the  Father 
of  Anthropology. 

"Lucretius,  "De  Rerum  Natura",  Bk.  V.  In  these 
foot-notes  I  do  not  cite  the  line  or  page.  The 
whole  book  in  every  case  should  be  carefully  studied, 
as  an  extract  wrested  from  its  context  is  often 
misleading. 

[5] 


Chaptee    III, 

Method. 

In  tracing  man's  language  and 
customs  back  to  primitive  times  we 
must  be  careful  not  to  jump  to  the 
conclusion  that  because  a  certain 
word,  custom,  or  institution  has  been 
derived  from  a  certain  source,  it  still 
preserves  some  of  the  characteristics 
of  that  source.  A  habit  which  is  now 
bad  may  have  had  a  perfectly  good 
origin.  Drunkenness  is  a  bad  habit, 
but  it  had  a  religious  origin."  In 
former  days  the  worshipper  became 
intoxicated  that  he  might  dull  the 
senses  and  set  the  spirit  free  to  com- 
mune with  the  object  of  his  adoration. 
Wine  was  supposed  to  induce  a  highly 
ecstatic  frame  of  mind.  It  made  you 
see  things  which  you  never  could  see 

»  "The  Golden  Bough",  Vol.  I,  Edit.   1900. 

[6] 


UP-TO-DATE 

when  sober.  This  is  why  snakes*  play 
such  an  important  part  in  many  of 
the  ancient  religions  and  this  is  why 
drunkenness  dies  so  hard.  It  has  its 
roots  in  religion.  To  take  an  illustra- 
tion from  language,  two  words  may 
be  derived  from  precisely  the  same 
source,  yet  one  of  them  may  have 
quite  an  innocent  meaning,  while  the 
other  may  carry  quite  a  naughty  sug- 
gestion. For  example  the  words  cor- 
respondent and  corespondent  have 
precisely  the  same  origin  but  they 
don't  mean  the  same  thing. 

The  Science  of  Anthropology  as- 
sumes that  man  has  a  continuous  de- 
velopment and  that  his  customs,  insti- 
tutions and  laws  may  therefore  be 
traced  through  savagery  and  barbar- 
ism up  to  modern  civilization."  But 
some  anthropologists  are  not  satis- 
fied  with   going   back   to    the    point 

*  "The   Golden  Bough",    Vol.   II,    Edit.    1900.      E.    B. 

Tylor's   "Primitive  Culture",  Vol.  II. 
6  E.   B.    Trior's    "Primitive    Culture",    Vol.    I. 

[7] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

where  men  have  emerged  from  the 
brute  stage.  They  maintain  that  we 
should  push  our  enquiries  back  to  the 
time  when  we  actually  were  brutes. 
Otherwise,  they  say,  you  will  not  be 
able  to  account  for  certain  stupid  hab- 
its of  the  present  day.  For  instance, 
when  a  man  is  being  taught  to  swim 
for  the  first  time,  he  insists  upon 
spreading  his  fingers  wide  open.  He 
has  to  be  taught  to  close  them.  Why? 
Because  we  used  to  be  web-fingered 
like  the  duck.  All  animal  life,  you 
should  know,  came  originally  from 
the  water.  Even  Old  Thales  knew 
that. 

The  more  conservative  school,  how- 
ever, restrict  investigation  to  man 
after  he  became  man.  In  our  en- 
deavor then  to  discover  the  meaning 
or  origin  of  our  beliefs  and  customs 
we  anthropologists  make  a  special 
study  of  the  beliefs  and  customs  of 
savages  all  the  world  over,   for   of 

[8] 


UP-TO-DATE 

course  they  are  the  most  primitive 
living  data  for  investigating  primi- 
tive ideas.  If  you  want  to  show  that 
primitive  man  believed  that  the  moon 
is  made  of  green  cheese,  you  make  the 
rounds  of  different  savage  tribes, 
preferably  in  Australia,  and  ask  them 
if  they  believe  the  moon  is  made  of 
green  cheese.  Sooner  or  later  you 
^ill  get  an  affirmative  reply.  And 
you  establish  the  point  beyond  ques- 
tion if  you  get  somebody  else,  prefer- 
ably a  minister,  to  extract  the  same 
answer  from  a  savage  in  Africa,  or 
the  island  of  Borneo. 

Savages  can  teach  us  a  lot,  but  in 
gathering  information  from  them  in 
regard  to  their  beliefs  and  practices 
you  have  to  be  very  careful.  They 
hate  to  be  bothered  with  questions 
and  sometimes  they  will  say  very 
queer  things  to  get  rid  of  you.  To 
illustrate  the  danger  of  collecting  evi- 
dence from  savages  when  you  are  not 

[9] 


\ 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

thoroughly  acquainted  with  their 
language,  I  cite  the  experience  of  a 
certain  French  explorer  who  was 
questioning  the  Tonga  Islanders  in 
regard  to  their  knowledge  of  arith- 
metic. It  seems  that  the  Tonga  Is- 
landers have  numbers  up  to  100000, 
which  is  quite  remarkable  for  sav- 
ages. But  the  Frenchman  was  bent 
on  proving  that  they  could  do  much 
better.  He  succeeded  in  raising  the 
ante  to  1000  billions  and  the  names 
for  these  numbers  were  duly  printed. 
Later  investigation  showed  that  the 
benighted  savages  had  palmed  off  a 
lot  of  nasty  words,  too  indecent  to 
print  even  in  French.^ 

For  many  years  anthropology  con- 
fined its  investigations  almost  en- 
tirely to  savages,  but  the  up-to-date 
anthropologist  is  now  applying  what 
he  has  learned  to  civilization,  both 
ancient  and  modern.    Many  classical 

«  E,   B.    Tylor's    "Primitive   Culture",   Vol.   I. 

[10] 


UP-TO-DATE 

stories  and  myths  are  now  much  more 
intelligible  and  much  less  horrible. 
Take  the  story  of  the  Cyclops  in  the 
Odyssey  with  its  revolting  details 
about  digging  out  the  eye  of  Poly- 
phemus. We  now  know  that  this  was 
nothing  but  an  innocent  game  of  Blind 
Man's  Bufe. 

The  character  of  Zeus  too  is  being 
gradually  whitewashed.  ''The  Chris- 
tian Fathers''  says  Andrew  Lang, 
''calculated  that  he  sowed  his  wild 
oats  and  persecuted  mortal  women 
with  his  affections  through  seventeen 
generations  of  men".  But  the  Chris- 
tian Fathers  were  very  uncharitable. 
Almost  all  the  scandalous  stories  about 
Zeus  can  be  satisfactorily  explained 
by  anthropology.  To  take  one  of 
many,  there  is  the  story  of  his  visit 
to  Danae  in  the  form  of  a  shower  of 
gold.  That  means  nothing  more  than 
a  shower  of  rain  coming  down  to  fert- 

[11] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

ilize  the  earth."  You  will  find  the  proof 
of  this  in  my  chapter  on  Magic. 

The  festival  of  the  Lupercalia,  one 
of  the  most  ancient  Roman  festivals, 
was  celebrated  every  year  in  honour 
of  Lupercus,  the  god,  be  it  noticed,  of 
fertility. 

The  priests  assembled  on  the  day 
of  the  festival  and  sacrificed  goats  to 
the  god.  After  the  sacrifice  was  over 
they  cut  the  skins  of  the  goats,  which 
they  had  sacrificed,  into  pieces,  with 
some  of  which  they  covered  parts  of 
their  bodies  in  imitation  of  the  god 
Lupercus.  The  other  pieces  of  the 
skins  they  cut  into  thongs  and  holding 
them  in  their  hands  they  ran  through 
the  streets  of  the  city,  striking  with 
them  everybody  whom  they  met,  and 
especially  women,  who  even  used  to 
come  forward  voluntarily  for  that 
purpose,  since  they  believed  that  this 
ceremony  rendered  them  fruitful. 

'  Salomon  Reinach's    "Orpheus". 

[12] 


UP-TO-DATE 

The  meaning  of  the  ceremony  had 
long  been  forgotten,  but  it  was  a  sur- 
vival of  contagious  magic.  The  fe- 
cundity of  the  animal  recently  sacri- 
ficed was  supposed  to  pass  into  the 
women,  through  the  thongs  made  of 
its  skin. 

At  Sparta  boys  were  mercilessly 
scourged.  Frequently  they  died  un- 
der the  lash  without  betraying  their 
suffering  by  look  or  moan.  The 
reason  given  by  the  Spartans  them- 
selves for  this  castigation  was  that  it 
taught  the  boys  endurance.  But  the 
original  meaning  of  the  ceremony  is 
to  be  found  in  contagious  magic.  The 
strength  or  vitality  of  the  tree  from 
which  the  rods  were  made  was  be- 
lieved to  pass  into  the  boys. 

In  our  own  day,  the  old-fashioned 
schoolmaster  thrashed  his  boys  with 
a  cane.  How  much  more  pleasant  our 
school  days  would  have  been  if  the 
master  had  only  known  some  anthro- 

[13] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

pologyf  Ignorantly  believing  that 
the  cane  was  meant  to  inflict  pain,  he 
applied  it  most  ^dgorously.  Had  he 
only  kno^vn  that  he  was  really  prac- 
tising contagious  magic,  he  would 
have  used  it  more  gently. 

The  up-to-date  parent  has  dis- 
carded these  old  and  brutal  methods 
of  bringing  up  children.  Children  are 
now  inoculated  with  candy,  which  by 
sympathetic  magic  sweetens  their 
character  and  renders  them  amenable 
to  discipline. 

To  test  the  method  of  getting  evi- 
dence by  firing  questions  at  all  and 
sundry,  I  once  made  a  systematic  can- 
vass to  find  out  what  meaning  people 
attached  to  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  inter- 
rogated an  eminent  divine,  a  cele- 
brated lawyer,  a  highly  successful 
physician,  and  a  clerk  of  a  first-class 
hotel.  To  my  question  '^What  do  you 
understand  by  the  Holy  Ghost  f  the 
divine  replied:  ^'A  sort  of  emanation 

[14] 


UP-TO-DATE 

from  the  Supreme  Being.''  The  law- 
yer's answer  was:  ''Ahem.  I'll  look 
it  up  and  give  you  my  opinion  tomor- 
row", and  the  physician  said:  ''Why, 
really,  I  don't  think  I  ever  thought 
just  what  I  did  think  about  it."  The 
reply  of  the  hotel  clerk  was  brief,  but 
quite  as  satisfactory  as  the  others. 
"^   He  said:  "Rats!" 


[15] 


Chapter  IV. 

Magic. 

The  primitive  savage  believes  that 
things  which  were  once  in  contact  re- 
tain their  connection  after  they  have 
been  separated,  and  whatever  may 
happen  to  one,  the  other  will  be  sim- 
ilarly affected/  If  an  enemy  can 
obtain  a  hair  of  your  head,  he  can 
cause  your  body  to  frizzle  up  by  put- 
ting your  hair  in  the  fire.  This  is  the 
reason  why  a  certain  king  in  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands  is  attended  by  a  K.  C. 
S.  —  Knight  Commander  of  the  Spit- 
toon. This  official  precedes  his  ma- 
jesty, holding  a  spittoon  into  which 
his  royal  master  expectorates,  and 
every  night  the  contents  are  carefully 
buried,  so  that  no  enemy  may  obtain 

*  Dr.  A.  0.  Haddon's  "Magic  and  Fetishism",  in  the 
Series,  "Religions  Ancient  and  Modern".  Better 
read    the    whole    Series. 

[16] 


UP-TO-DATE 

them  and  work  magic  on  his  royal 
person.  In  passing,  we  should  note 
that  such  a  custom  when  widely  prac- 
tised prevents  the  spread  of  tubercu- 
losis among  these  ignorant  heathen. 

Instances  of  the  practice  of  magic 
survive  to  the  present  day.  The  base- 
ball pitcher  goes  through  a  number  of 
extraordinary  contortions  like  the 
movements  of  St.  Vitus'  Dance  and 
the  Highland  Fling  commingled. 
Why?  His  idea  is  to  impart  to  the 
ball  a  motion  so  peculiar  that  the  bat- 
ter will  not  be  able  to  hit  it. 

Another  common  belief  among  sav- 
age peoples  is  that  whatever  is  taken 
into  the  body  transfers  its  character- 
istics to  the  body.  Thus  in  the  island 
of  Borneo  it  is  forbidden  to  eat  deer 
because  the  act  would  cause  timidity.' 
If  you  want  to  be  courageous,  eat 
something  that  was  courageous.  This 
is   why   the   Germans   eat   sausages. 

"Hose  and  McDougall's   "Pagan  Tribes  of  Borneo". 

[in 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

Of  course  they  are  careful  to  make 
them  of  the  proper  sort  of  dog.  The 
English  bull-dog  is  a  great  favorite 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war. 

By  a  further  process  of  reasoning 
the  savage  argues  that  by  taking  into 
the  system  a  little  of  what  is  injurious 
he  may  ward  off  a  greater  evil.  It  is 
the  homeopathic  doctrine  similia 
similibus  curantur  and  explains  why* 
calves '  head  and  brain  sauce  is  a  fav- 
orite dish  with  many. 

This  is  the  principle  underlying  our 
system  of  pair  marriage.  A  man 
takes  one  woman  to  wife  for  fear  of 
the  rest  of  the  sex  tearing  him  to 
pieces,  literally  or  metaphorically,  ac- 
cording to  the  stage  of  society  in 
which  he  lives.  Thus  marriage  was 
originally  a  sort  of  inoculation  against 
the  fury  of  a  woman  scorned.  This, 
too,  is  the  explanation  of  our  mother- 
in-law  jokes.  Underneath  all  our 
jesting   there   is   the    substratum   of 

[18] 


UP-TO-DATE 

fact.  Man  first  married  from  fear 
and  while  he  partially  succeeded  in 
disarming  the  wife  by  marrying  her, 
he  still  feels  a  decided  antipathy  to 
his  wife's  nearest  female  relative. 

Hence  too,  as  a  great  misfortune 
may  be  warded  off  by  inflicting  a 
slight  one,  old  boots  are  thrown  at  a 
bride  and  groom  to  ensure  them  a 
happy  life  in  the  future  by  doing  them 
a  little  wrong  in  the  present.  By 
feigning  to  injure  the  newly  wedded 
ones  you  anticipate  that  bad  luck 
which  is  sure  to  come  upon  such  con- 
summate bliss.  You  avert,  in  short, 
the  jealousy  of  the  gods. 

The  science  of  biology  has  estab- 
lished the  similarity  of  man's  phys- 
ical body  to  that  of  certain  animals. 
Anthropology  has  traced  many  of  our 
mental  characteristics  to  the  same 
source.  The  notion  set  forth  above, 
that  an  object  can  be  influenced 
through  that  which  was  once  m  con- 

[19] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

tact  with  it,  is  found  in  the  lower 
animals.  Thus,  if  a  man  is  chased  by 
a  bull  and  throws  away  his  coat  to 
facilitate  his  escape,  the  bull  will  gore 
and  toss  the  coat,  if  he  cannot  get  the 
man.  Xo  doubt  this  action  on  the 
part  of  the  bull  is  quite  unreasoned, 
but  the  passing  from  such  instinctive 
action  to  a  reasoned  mode  of  proce- 
dure is  precisely  what  makes  the  dif- 
ference between  man  and  brute. 


[20] 


Chapteb  v. 

Rain-Making. 

Another  form  of  raagic  called  imi- 
tative magic  is  founded  on  the  belief 
that  the  desired  result  can  be  produced 
by  imitating  it.  A  common  method 
adopted  by  the  magician  in  produc- 
ing rain  is  to  pour  water  over  him- 
self, or  some  member  of  his  tribe/ 
This  is  why  the  shower-bath  is  not 
popular  with  Scotch  farmers.  There 
is  always  quite  enough  rain  in  Scot- 
land without  resorting  to  disagree- 
able magic  to  bring  it  on. 

Some  people  think  it  very  silly 
reasoning  on  the  part  of  the  savage 
to  imagine  he  can  influence  nature  by 
imitative  magic.  But  the  savage  is 
not  quite  so  silly  as  might  at  first  ap- 
pear.    The  results  wiiich  he  tries  to 

1  "The  Golden  Bough",  Vol.  I,  Edit.  1900. 

[21] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

bring  about  are,  as  far  as  I  can  find 
out,  always  possible.  Eain  mil  doubt- 
less come  sooner  or  later,  after  he  has 
practised  his  imitative  magic.  But 
he  seems  to  be  too  acute  to  attempt 
the  building  of  a  canoe  by  any  such 
means,  because  he  knows  very  well 
the  result  will  not  be  achieved,  no 
matter  how  long  he  waits. 

Xor  is  the  savage  to  be  considered 
silly  because  he  keeps  on  with  his  imi- 
tative magic,  even  when  he  never  suc- 
ceeds in  bringing  about  the  desired 
result.  Civilized  people  keep  up  the 
practice  of  praying  for  all  sorts  of 
things,  even  though  their  prayers 
may  never  be  answered. 

Closely  allied  to  these  ideas  is  the 
belief  in  charms  and  amulets.  Sav- 
ages wear  all  sorts  of  things  about 
their  necks  to  ward  off  misfortunes. 
In  modern  society  some  people  wear 
a  necktie  to  cover  up  a  dirty  shirt, 
but  such  was  not  its  original  use.    It 

[22] 


UP-TO-DATE 

is  primarily  of  the  same  nature  as  a 
charm.  The  necktie  first  came  to  be 
worn  in  the  days  when  men  were  hung 
for  very  trifling  offences.  By  wear- 
ing a  piece  of  rope  about  the  neck  a 
man  warded  off  death  by  hanging  in 
making  this  slight  concession  to  the 
hangman.  This  is  the  history  of  the 
four-in-hand.  As  society  advanced  in 
culture  the  necktie  was  formed  to 
imitate  a  butterfly.  This  is  the  style 
used  by  male  dancers  in  evening 
clothes,  and  by  coercive  magic  it  in- 
duces  the  necessary  lightness  of  foot 
required  for  the  modern  ball-room. 

In  the  confused  reasoning  of  the 
s^avage  mind  this  imitative  magic 
could  work  in  two  ways.  At  the  stage 
in  which  he  came  first  to  believe  in 
spirits  he  thought  that  by  imitating 
rain  he  constrained  the  gods  to  send 
rain.  But  in  sending  rain  the  gods 
themselves  in  turn  are  imitating  his 
performance.    And  so  the  gods  come 

[23] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

to  imitate  him  when  he  is  engaged  in 
scandalous  performances  not  meant 
for  heavenly  imitation.  This  is  one 
of  the  methods  by  which  anthropolo- 
gists explain  the  conduct  of  the 
heathen  gods  which  the  Christian 
Fathers  so  much  decried. 


[24] 


Chapter  VI. 

Names. 

Not  only  is  there  a  common  belief 
among  primitive  peoples  that  the 
body  can  be  worked  upon  through 
anything  that  has  been  in  contact  with 
it,  but  just  as  universal  is  the  belief 
that  even  the  name  of  a  person  can 
be  used  to  work  magic  upon.  Hence 
comes  the  practice  of  writing  the 
name  of  an  enemy  on  a  piece  of  wood 
and  driving  nails  into  it.  For  this 
reason  a  name  is  often  carefully  con- 
cealed, lest  an  enemy  should  work 
black  magic  upon  it.  It  is  said  that 
Eoma  was  not  the  real  name  of  the 
capital  of  ancient  Italy.  Its  real 
name  has  been  kept  so  secret  that  no- 
body knows  what  it  was.  A  distin- 
g-uished  anthropologist  suggests  that 
you  get  it  by  reading  the  letters  back- 

[25] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

wards  —  Amor,  Love,  a  name  sug- 
gested by  the  tradition  that  Venus 
was  the  mother  of  Aeneas. 

So  important  was  the  name  con- 
sidered that  it  became  a  sort  of  fetish. 
Even  today  some  words  are  fetishes, 
for  example,  democracy.  Nobody 
knows  precisely  what  it  now  stands 
for.  But  everybody  uses  it  and  every- 
body has  a  different  notion  in  regard 
to  its  meaning.  Political  orators 
dangle  it  before  their  constituents  as 
a  sort  of  charm  to  win  popularity.  No 
one  is  bold  enough  to  criticise  it  with 
the  same  sincerity  as  he  would  criti- 
cise aristocracy,  oligarchy,  pluto- 
cracy, or  despotism. 


[26] 


Chapter  VII. 

The  Origin  of  Magic. 

Imitative  magic  explains  many 
things  no  doubt,  but  it  is  not  quite 
satisfactory  to  say  that  the  savage 
believes  that  he  can  get  a  desired  re- 
sult by  imitating  it.  A  science  which 
professes  to  get  at  the  origin  of 
things  should  explain  lioiv  the  savage 
comes  to  believe  that  he  can  get  the 
desired  result  by  imitating  it.  In 
short,  one  wants  to  know  the  origin 
of  imitative  magic  itself.  Herbert 
Spencer'  says  that,  ^'guidance  by 
custom,  which  we  everywhere  find 
amongst  rude  peoples,  is  the  sole  con- 
ceivable guidance  at  the  outset."  I 
suppose  it  was  this  sort  of  reasoning 
that  prompted  Carlyle  to  call  him  ' '  an 
immeasurable  ass."    How  could  cus- 

2  "Princ.    of    Sociology",    Sec.    529. 

[27] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

torn  be  the  sole  guidance  of  prim- 
itive man  at  the  outset?  Custom  im- 
plies that  a  thing  has  been  practised 
for  a  considerable  time.  It  would  be 
more  reasonable  to  say  that  guidance 
by  instinct  is  the  sole  conceivable 
guidance  at  the  outset.  If  we  accept 
the  law  of  evolution  with  all  that  it 
implies,  inchoate  man,  that  is  man  as 
he  is  just  emerging  from  the  brute 
stage,  must  have  been  guided  in  all 
his  actions  by  instinct." 

In  his  struggle  for  existence,  the 
only  help  he  could  get  besides  his  in- 
stincts lay  in  imitation,  and  only  three 
sources  of  imitation  lay  open  to  him, 
namely,  imitation  of  animals,  imita- 
tion of  nature  and  imitation  of  his 
own  kind.  From  imitation  of  animals 
he  learnt  many  things,  vocal  culture 
as  we  have  seen  for  one.  From  imita- 
tion of  his  own  kind  he  would  not 
learn  much,  for  his  ovra  kind  were  as 

»  W.   G.   Sumner's    "Folkways". 

[28] 


UP-TO-DATE 

ignorant  as  himseK.  There  remained 
only  imitation  of  natural  forces.  To 
that  he  turned  in  desperation,  not 
necessarily  because  he  believed  in  it, 
but  simply  because  it  was  the  only 
thing  left  for  him  to  try.  So  if  he 
needed  rain,  he  imitated  rain  and,  as 
the  rain  sometimes  came,  he  was 
fooled  into  believing  that  he  was  the 
cause  of  it.  You  will  find  quite  as  bad 
logic  among  civilized  people.  It  is  no 
worse  than  the  reasoning  of  Herbert 
Spencer  as  exemplified  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  chapter. 


[29] 


Chapter  VIII. 

The  Social  Unit. 

Many  of  the  lower  animals  have  a 
social  unit.  If  a  wolf,  for  example, 
when  separated  by  accident  from  the 
pack  to  which  it  belongs,  brings  down 
its  prey,  what  does  it  do?  It  may  of 
course,  like  many  other  animals  under 
stress  of  hunger,  become  for  the 
nonce  a  hog  and  eat  the  whole  thing 
itself,  but  such  is  not  its  habit.  As  a 
rule  it  sends  forth  a  cry  of  invita- 
tion for  the  rest  of  the  pack  to  come 
and  share  its  good  fortune.  There  is 
no  mistaking  this  cry.  It  is  a  dulcet 
tone  quite  different  from  the  ordinary 
howl  of  starvation  which  the  casual 
hunter  knows. 

Crows  will  post  a  sentinel  at  some 
point  of  vantage  before  swooping 
down  on  their  prey  and  if  the  sentinel 

[30] 


UP-TO-DATE 

fails  to  give  warning  at  the  approach 
of  a  hunter  or  other  clanger,  those  of 
the  flock  who  have  not  been  killed  will 
tear  the  sentinel  to  pieces.  From 
these  two  instances  two  conclusions 
may  be  drawn.  Firstly,  some  animals 
form  a  social  unit,  and  secondly,  they 
do  so  in  their  quest  for  food. 

Now  at  that  point  in  his  development 
when  man  had  just  emerged  from  the 
brute  stage  his  sole  business,  the  only 
thing  that  concerned  him,  was  the 
quest  for  food.  From  animals  more 
than  from  any  other  source  he  learnt 
how  to  procure  it.  Watching  birds 
dive  for  fish  suggested  the  art  of 
spearing.  From  different  animals  he 
learned  different  tricks.  As  a  rule 
each  animal  has  only  one  good  trick. 
Man  was  capable  of  learning  the 
whole  bag  of  tricks  and  so  was  able 
to  make  more  rapid  progress  than  the 
other  brutes.  It  is  just  this  capacity, 
the  capacity  to  imitate  almost  any- 

[31] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

thing  he  saw  which  differentiated  him 
from  the  other  amm.als.  At  this  stage, 
I  mean  the  stage  when  he  is  learning 
to  fill  his  bag  of  tricks,  he^  has  no 
name,  but  he  has  already  formed  like 
many  other  less  intelligent  animals  a 
social  unit,  which  for  want  of  a  more 
distinctive  term  we  shall  call  a  pack. 
As  time  went  on  each  pack  called  it- 
self by  the  name  of  the  animal  that 
had  taught  it  its  best  trick  for  getting 
its  staple  food.  If  a  pack  could  find 
little  to  live  on  but  fish,  it  identified 
itseK  with  the  bird  that  taught  it  to 
spear.  Both  bird  and  man  became, 
so  to  speak,  birds  of  a  feather.  Once 
the  custom  was  established  of  taking 
a  name  from  an  animal,  men  named 
themselves,  or  perhaps  even  nick- 
named others  after  all  sorts  of  ani- 
mals and  extended  the  practice  to 
anything  eatable,  after  the  reason  for 
adopting  the  name  of  an  animal  was 

[32] 


UP-TO-DATE 

forgotten.  Thus  arose  the  practice 
of  Totemism.* 

As  yet  the  family  is  not  the  bond  of 
union.  That  comes  next,  when  men 
are  beyond  the  purely  hunting  stage 
and  have  advanced  to  the  pastoral 
and  agricultural  stage.  Here  there 
is  need  of  a  greater  division  of  labour. 
So  the  family,  which  may  embrace 
several  generations,  is  formed,  then  a 
union  of  families  into  clans,  next  the 
city-state,  and  lastly  the  nation  as 
we  know  it.  Thus  the  whole  fabric  of 
civilization  is  built  upon  the  stomach. 
^Miether  an  enduring  Empire  or  a 
World  State  can  be  built  on  this 
foundation  is  extremely  doubtful. 

Certain  species  of  animals  then  are 
capable  of  forming  a  social  unit  to  as- 
sist one  another  in  the  quest  for  food. 
Some  lovers  of  animals  go  so  far  as 

*  E.  B.  Tylor's  "Primitive  Culture",  Vol.  I.  For  a 
full  discussion  of  Totemism  see  "Totemism  and 
Exogamy",  by  J.  G.  Frazer  and  "The  Secret 
of  the   Totem",   by   Andrew   Lang. 

[33] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

to  maintain  that  their  pets  not  only- 
have  a  language  in  which  they  speak 
to  each  other  but  that  they  also  under- 
stand the  language  of  men.  They  cite 
the  fact  that  a  cat  will  come  to  you 
when  you  call  *^puss^'  and  that  a 
horse  will  make  the  correct  response 
when  you  shout  ^^back  up''.  But  you 
can  teach  a  cat  to  run  away  when  you 
call  *^puss''  and  a  horse  to  go  for- 
ward when  you  shout  *^back  up''. 
These  animals  have  learnt  to  obey 
your  command  in  the  first  place  sim- 
ply by  associating  certain  sounds  with 
corresponding  signals  on  your  part. 
This  is  proved  by  the  conduct  of  cer- 
tain cats  in  a  Spanish  monastery. 
The  well-known  Spanish  way  of  call- 
ing a  cat  is  7niz,  miz!  while  zape,  zape! 
is  used  to  drive  it  away.  Now  in  a 
certain  monastery  in  Spain  where 
they  kept  very  handsome  cats,  the 
brother  in  charge  of  the  refectory  hit 
upon  the  device  of  calling  zape,  zape! 

[34] 


UP-TO-DATE 

to  them  when  he  gave  them  their  food, 
and  then  he  drove  them  away  with  a 
stick  crying  angrily  miz,  yniz;  and 
this  of  course  prevented  any  stranger 
from  calling  and  stealing  them  for 
only  he  and  the  cats  knew  the  secret. 
There  seems  however  to  be  little 
doubt  that  man  learnt  language  in 
the  first  place  from  the  sounds  made 
by  animals  or  infants.  Indeed  quite 
a  strong  argument  may  be  built 
upon  this  supposition  for  the  Roman 
method  of  pronouncing  Latin.  To  take 
one  instance  out  of  many.  Ah  uno 
disce  omnes  as  Vergil  says.  The  Latin 
verb  vagio  means  to  caterwaul  like 
an  infant.  Now  an  infant  cannot 
pronounce  v.  The  squall  of  an  infant 
is  represented  by  wa.  Therefore  v 
was  pronounced  in  Latin  like  a  w. 


[35] 


Chapter  IX. 

The  Origin  of  Exogamy. 

Exogamy  is  the  practice  of  marry- 
ing only  outside  of  one's  own  clan, 
tribe  or  social  group.  Its  effect  is  to 
prevent  the  marriage  of  near  kin,  es- 
pecially brothers  with  sisters  and 
parents  with  children.  Among  cer- 
tain tribes  of  central  Australia'  it  is 
found  in  its  earliest  form.  The  tribe 
is  divided  into  two  groups  only  and 
an  individual  must  choose  a  mate 
from  the  group  to  which  he  does  not 
belong.  As  children  belong  to  the 
mother's  group,  this  division  of  the 
tribe  prevents  the  marriage  of  broth- 
ers and  sisters.  As  this  is  the  most 
primitive  sort  of  exogamy  it  is  the 
only  one  that  need  be  considered  in 

5  Spencer  and  Gillen'a   "The  Native  Tribes  of  Central 
Australia". 

[36] 


UP-TO-DATE 

settling  the  question  of  origin.     The 
question  then  simply  stated  is.    Why 
had  primitive  people  an  objection  to 
the  mating  of  brothers  and  sisters? 
Some  say  it  is  for  the  purpose  of 
preventing  the  evils  arising  from  in- 
breeding.   But  this  is  much  too  scien- 
tific an  idea  to  ascribe  to  the  lowest 
known  type  of  savages  in  existence. 
Besides,   Spencer   and   Gillan   assert 
that  they  are  not  even  aware  of  any 
connection  between  mating  and  birth. 
Nor  is  it  satisfactory  to  say  that  they 
have    learnt   the    practice    from   the 
lower  animals,  as  they  have  learnt  so 
many  other  things  to  help  them  in 
their  struggle  for  existence.  They  did 
not  learn  the  practice  from  the  lower 
animals.  Both  animals  and  man  prac- 
tised  exogamy   from   instinct.     For 
proof  of  animal  instinct  in  regard  to 
mating  I  submit  the  following  from 
Dr.  William  J.  Long: 

''Allowing  for  mistakes   of  infer- 

[37] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

ence  the  following  facts  seem  to  me 
significant : 

1.  Among  higher  orders  of  wild 
animals,  chastity  is  the  rule.  Males 
and  females  live  together  or  near  each 
other  usually,  and  except  at  the  time 
of  rut  there  is  no  sexual  intercourse 
and  no  attempt  at  sexual  intercourse. 
I  say  this  confidently,  for  I  have 
watched  thousands  of  animals  at  all 
times  and  know  their  habits. 

2.  When  the  time  of  rut  draws 
near,  all  family  groups  of  wild  anim- 
als (at  least  all  I  have  studied)  break 
up  and  scatter.  The  males  especially 
wander  mdely  and  get  mates  from 
other  family  groups.  If  a  young  male 
bear  for  instance,  stays  near  the 
mother,  he  is  cuffed  and  beaten  away. 
The  same  is  true  of  other  animals.  I 
have  seen  it  so  often  that  I  camiot 
doubt  its  meaning. 

3.  The  female  white-tailed  deer 
almost  invariably  keeps  her  female 

[38] 


UP-TO-DATE 

fawns  with  her  during  the  winter.  Oc- 
casionally also  she  keeps  a  male  fawn, 
or  rather  he  stays  with  her,  or  near 
her,  until  the  rut  in  late  autumn. 
"When  the  rut  is  on,  the  female  fawns 
are  still  near  the  mother  and  remain 
with  her  during  the  deep  snows. 
These  female  fawns  stay  with  or  near 
the  mother  until  the  next  autumn 
when  they  first  rut.  So  you  will  very 
often  find  a  female  yearling  with  the 
old  doe  and  her  new  f  a^\m.  But  you 
will  never  find  a  yearling  buck  with 
his  mother  and  her  new  fawns.  The 
young  bucks  apparently  leave  the 
the  mother ;  they  are  not  driven  away. 
I  have  observed  deer  families  often; 
and  I  infer  that  the  buck  feels  the 
instinct  to  leave  and  search  for  other 
females,  just  as  the  doe  feels  the 
instinct  for  males  not  of  her  own 
family. 

4.     The  wolves  tell  me  exactly  the 
same   story.     I  have  followed  their 

[39] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

trails  for  weeks  at  a  time  before  and 
during  the  rut  and  am  positive  that 
when  the  time  to  mate  arrives,  the 
family  group  or  pack  breaks  up  and 
the  males  seek  females  in  other  fam- 
ily groups." 

So  far,  then,  as  a  trained  intel- 
ligence can  discover  anything  from 
observation,  some  animals  are  born 
with  an  instinct  against  the  union  of 
brother  and  sister.  The  hypothesis 
that  man  is  born  with  the  same  in- 
stinct is  only  a  hypothesis,  but  then 
the  theory  of  evolution  itself  is  only 
a  hypothesis.  Absolute  proof  in  either 
case  is  impossible. 


[40] 


Chapter  X. 
Anthropomorphic  Gods. 

How  man  came  to  conceive  of  gods 
in  his  o^\TL  image  is  commonly  ex- 
plained in  four  ways.' 

(1)  Trances,  swoons,  sleep,  seem 
in  themselves  to  suggest  to  ignorant 
observers  the  existence  of  doubles, 
that  is,  of  beings  dwelling  within  the 
body,  animating  it,  and  able  to  absent 
themselves  from  it  for  a  time  or  per- 
manently. 

(2)  Apparitions  of  persons  still 
living  or  dead  appearing  to  men  while 
asleep  seem  also  sufficient  to  lead  to 
a  belief  in  ghosts  and  survival  after 

death. 

(3)  The  third  source  of  behef  m 
•unseen  personal  agents  is  the  spon- 

8  James    H.    Leuba's    "The    Psycliological    Origin    and 
the   Nature   of   Religion". 

[41] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

taneous  personification  of  striking 
natural  phenomena. 
\y^  (4)  The  necessity  of  a  Maker  is 
said  to  be  borne  in  upon  the  savage 
at  a  very  early  time.  Those  who  hold 
this  view  simply  assert  that  the  form 
under  which  the  Creator  is  imagined 
is,  of  course,  derived  from  the  beings 
with  which  his  senses  have  made  the 
savage  familiar. 

These  explanations  may  all  be  sa- 
tisfactory enough  of  the  manner  in 
which  savages  came  to  believe  in 
ghosts  or  spirits,  but  they  do  not  ex- 
plain how  he  turned  his  ghosts  into 
gods  formed  like  himself,  and  explan- 
ation Xo.  4  simply  begs  the  question. 

The  true  explanation  is  that  the 
savage  arrived  at  the  notion  of  a  god 
in  his  own  image  in  a  practical  way 
just  as  he  worked  out  other  things  in 
adapting  means  to  ends. 

Everybody  is  agreed  that  previous 
to   the    stage    of    anthropomorphism 

[42] 


UP-TO-DATE 

mail  attributed  powers  greater  than 
his  own  to  inanimate  objects  in  which 
a  vague  formless  spirit,  as  yet  inde- 
finable, was  supposed  to  lodge.    Now 
let  us  put  ourselves  in  the  place  of 
the  savage  and  let  us  take  an  object, 
say  the  stump  of  a  tree,  which  has 
been  blasted  with  lightning,  as  the  ob- 
ject in  which  resides  the  Power  which 
we  do  not  formulate  or  understand, 
but  which  we  wish  to  influence.    We 
ask  this  Power  to  help  us   and  he 
doesn't  comply.    Why  not!    He  can- 
not have  heard  our  request.     So  w^e 
bore  a  hole  in  each  side  of  the  stump 
that  our  voice  may  the  better  reach 
the  spirit  in  the  interior.    These  holes 
after  a  time  come  to  be  spoken  of  as 
ears.     When  we   offer  the   spirit   a 
drink,  as  we  would  to  a  friend  to  put 
him  in  a  good  humour,  he  doesn't  see 
it.    We  put  a  couple  of  holes  in  the 
front  so  that  the  spirit  within  will  be 
able  to  look  through  them  and  see  the 

[43] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

spirit  without.  The  stump  has  now 
got  ears  to  hear  and  eyes  to  see  and 
so  the  process  goes  on  until  gradually 
we  have  got  a  rough  figure  of  a  man. 
Then  and  not  till  then  the  savage  con- 
ceives of  the  power  inside  as  formed 
like  a  man.  This  explains  why  the 
statues  held  in  most  reverence  in  an- 
cient religions  were  hideous  formless 
things.  Sometimes  the  finished  prod- 
uct resembled  one  of  the  lower  anim- 
als more  than  it  did  man.  This  gave 
rise  to  animal  worship.  Sometimes 
one  part  would  look  like  a  man  and 
the  other  part  like  an  animal.  Hence 
arose  animal-headed  deities  like  the 

^'EgyptiRTi  Bastet,  who  had  the  head 

(i     of  a  cat. 

^  The  cat  is  the  most  ancient  sacred 
animal  known  to  man.  It  was  the 
most  sacred  animal  among  the  Egjip- 
tians  and  for  centuries  it  was  un- 
known in  Europe.  At  Pompeii  archae- 
ologists have  discovered  proofs  that 

[44] 


UP-TO-DATE 

almost  every  other  kind  of  animal 
was  known  in  Europe  but  there  is  no 
trace  of  the  cat/  Not  until  Egyptian 
Paganism  was  swept  away  and  Chris- 
tianity was  able  to  import  cats  to 
Europe  were  we  blessed  with  that 
harmless  necessary  animal.  For  these 
reasons  we  particularly  abhor  the 
idea  of  eating  cats,  firstly  because 
they  are  the  most  ancient  sacred  an- 
imal and  secondly  because  they  re- 
present the  triumph  of  Christianity 
over  Paganism. 


T  Salomon  Reinach's   "Cultes,  Mythes  et  Religions". 
[45] 


Chapter  XI. 

Religion. 

Savages  are  sometimes  referred  to 
as  worshippers  of  stocks  and  stones, 
but  there  is  no  satisfactory  proof  that 
worship  has  ever  been  paid  to  stocks 
and  stones  as  such.  There  is  always 
connected  with  the  stock  or  stone  an 
idea  of  a  Power  or  Spirit.  No  doubt 
individual  savages  have  been  found 
who  are  below  even  the  very  low  aver- 
age of  their  community,  and  in  whom 
the  idea  of  Spirit  is  very  vague  in- 
deed. Mentally  such  individuals  have 
not  advanced  much  beyond  the  animal 
stage,  but  even  a  dog  begs  only  from  a 
living  thing.  He  will  get  on  his  hind 
legs  and  beg  from  a  man  but  you  will 
never  find  a  dog  making  supplication 
to  a  suspended  ham. 

All  savages  then,  of  whom  we  have 
any   definite    knowledge,    worship    a 

[46] 


UP-TO-DATE 

Power  outside  of  themselves,  some- 
thing non-material,  or  at  least  not  so 
grossly  material  as  a  solid  body,  more 
or  less  vaguely  conceived,  for  which 
their  language  may  have  no  satis- 
factory name.  Even  the  Ancient 
Greeks,  in  attempting  to  express  the 
idea  of  soul,  called  it  PrijjJip..  which  is 
the  word  for  a  butterfly 

In  our  explanation  of  the  evolution 
of  a  god  we  took  a  tree  as  an  example 
of  one  of  the  objects  which  the  savage 
developed  into  a  god.  But  in  select- 
ing a  tree  his  choice  was  determined 
by  the  belief  that  it  had  exhibited 
Power  and  that  too  of  a  non-material 
sort.  A  tree  that  had  been  struck  by 
lightning  suggested  the  idea  that  the 
tree  contained  the  Power  of  making 
j&re,  a  Power  which  he  himself  did  not 
at  first  possess,  and  acquired  only 
after  painful  experience.  Hence  then 
is  developed  in  his  mind  belief  in  and 
reverence  for  a  Power  external  to  and 

[47] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

greater  than  himself.  Thus  creed  is 
begotten.  Eitual  followed  when  the 
savage  made  a  request  or  presented 
an  offering  to  the  Power  in  the 
Stump.  The  growth  of  the  Stump 
into  a  god  stimulated  the  imagination 
and  enriched  his  whole  life.  Thus 
whatever  else  religion  may  be  it  is, 
as  Professor  Watson  has  pointed  out 
in  the  Philosophical  Basis  of  Religion, 
a  life,  a  creed,  and  a  ritual,  and  it  is 
all  these  explicitly  or  implicitly  in  the 
lowest  savages  of  whom  we  have  any 
knowledge. 

I  do  not  put  this  forward  as  a  de- 
finition of  religion.  A  definition  like 
Formal  Logic  adds  nothing  new  to 
your  store  of  knowledge.  If  you  doubt 
that,  look  up  your  dictionary  for  the 
definition  of  a  cow.  My  dictionary 
\  says  a  cow  is  ^'the  female  of  the 
bovine  animals '  \  If  you  did  not  know 
a  cow  from  previous  experience  you 
certainly  would  not  ^recognize  it  from 
the  definition. 

[48] 


Chapter  XII. 

Cannibalism. 

Of   cannibalism  we   have   today   a 
great  horror.     Among  civilized  peo- 
ples the  practice  is  so  revolting  that 
it  has  not  been  considered  necessary 
to  frame  any  laws,  civil  or  ecclesiast- 
ical, against  it.    So  far  as  the  law  is 
concerned  a  man  may  eat  his  o^vn  son 
instead    of    burying    him    if    he    so 
chooses.    Among  many  savages  it  was 
a  religious  duty  or  a  mark  of  affec- 
tion to  eat  a  relative.    And  in  prim- 
itive  days,  just  because  man  could 
eat  man,  our  species  survived  while 
so  many  other  species  of  animal  have 
become'extinct.   In  seasons  of  drought 
and  famine,  when  other  food  could 
not  be  procured,  man  got  over  hard 
times  by  eating  his  omi  kind.    Many 
species  of  the  lower  animals,  which 

[49] 


\ 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

were  too  squeamisli  to  follow  man's 
example,  died  of  starvation.  This  is 
what  is  known  as  the  law  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest. 

Of  course  once  man  developed  a 
taste  for  man,  he  could  not  easily 
give  up  the  practice  of  cannibalism, 
and  while  many  savage  tribes  pro- 
gressed so  far  as  to  refrain  from  eat- 
ing their  own  kind,  yet  they  had  no 
objection  to  missionaries.  Mission- 
aries they  regarded  as  a  godsend. 
They  seized  and  cooked  any  that 
landed  on  their  shores.  Naturally  the 
missionary  resisted.  In  spite  of  his 
struggles  he  became  the  principal 
dish  at  the  next  meal.  Hence  the 
origin  of  the  term  2^iece  de  resistance. 
After  the  repast  it  was  the  custom 
to  use  the  charred  bones  of  the  victim 
for  legs  of  chairs  and  tables.  The 
mission  furniture  of  civilized  society 
derived  its  name  from  this  savage 
custom. 

[50] 


UP-TO-DATE 

And  yet  cannibalism  after  all  is  not 
so  revolting  a  practice  if  it  is  recog- 
nized that  its  origin  lay  in  sacrificing 
a  human  victim  to  the  gods.'  Man  be- 
gan by  giving  his  best  to  the  gods. 
At  first  the  king  or  priest  was  sacri- 
ficed, and  as  he  was  often  thought  to 
be  deity  incarnate  he  was  eaten  by 
the  worshippers  in  the  belief  that  by 
doing  so  they  became  permeated  with 
the  divine  spirit.  Later  an  animal, 
such  as  a  bull,  was  substituted.  Bulls 
came  to  be  regarded  as  too  expensive 
and  a  goat  or  pig  was  sacrificed. 

Man  became  more  niggardly  still 
and  fashioned  a  piece  of  dough'^  to 
represent  the  victim  and  finally  they 
did  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  fash- 
ion the  dough  in  any  image. 


8  W.  Robertson  Smith's  "The  Religion  of  the  Semites". 

W     G.    Sumner's    "Folkways". 

9  "The  Golden  Bough",  Vol.  II,  page  337,  Edit.  1900. 

[51] 


Chaptee  XIII. 

The  Power  of  Suggestion. 

In  working  Ms  magic  the  medicine 
man  often  reinforces  his  art  by  the 
power  of  suggestion.  He  gets  a  kind 
friend  to  tell  the  victim  that  a  hair  of 
his  head  or  a  bit  of  his  clothing  is 
under  treatment  and  this  knowledge 
so  works  upon  the  poor  wretches  mind 
that  he  almost  invariably  succumbs. 
Today  the  civilized  physician  is  mak- 
ing use  of  this  power  of  suggestion 
for  curative  purposes.  When  a  doc- 
tor is  called  in,  to  attend  a  sick  child, 
he  very  often  finds  nothing  particu- 
larly the  matter  with  it,  but  he  leaves 
a  bottle  for  the  child,  cures  the  anxi- 
ety in  the  mother's  mind  and  sends 
in  his  bill  to  the  father. 

Surgeons,  too,  rely  to  a  great  ex- 
tent upon  the  power  of  suggestion.  If 

[52] 


UP-TO-DATE 


you  have  a  pain  in  the  right  iliac,  they 
place  you  on  the  operating  table  and 
though  they  find  nothing  the  matter, 
you  get  better  —  sometimes,  because 
you  think  they  have  cut  away  the  of- 
fending member.     I  should  perhaps 
explain  to_thfi_JiniiLitiated,  ihat   the 
iliac  is  noTan^epic  poem_by_^Homer. 
-iTis  that  part  of  your  anatomy  in 
which  reposes  the  golden  egg  called 
by    surgeons    the    appendix    vermi- 
formis,  and  alas !  the  goose  of  golden 
egg  reputation  is  often  killed. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  physician 
of  today  is  taking  a  leaf  out  of  the 
medicine  man's  book  in  making  use  of 
the  power  of  suggestion,  yet  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  his  art  as  a 
physician  was  developed  from  the 
practices  of  the  medicine  man.  That 
supposition  is  quite  false  although  it 
is  adopted  by  Herbert  Spencer.  The 
medicine  man  believed  that  evil  spir- 
its were  the   sole  cause   of   disease. 

[53] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

He  sought  therefore  to  cure  by  exor- 
cism only.  The  old  women  of  the 
tribe,  however,  while  their  men  folk 
were  engaged  in  war  or  the  chase 
roamed  the  woods  for  healing  herbs 
wherewith  to  cure  their  sick.  It  is 
from  those  old  wives  that  the  modern 
physician  is  developed. 


[54] 


Chapter  XIV. 

Kings  and  Priests. 

Many  anthropologists  claim  that 
the  medicine  man  of  the  primitive 
savage  made  use  of  his  great  power 
to  make  himself  king  as  well  as  chief 
priest  and  the  chief  priest  in  many 
cases  was  thought  to  be  the  deity 
incarnate.  Thus  the  divine  right  of 
kings  became  early  established.  But 
after  a  time  the  king  delegated  his 
power  as  priest  to  one  of  his  dutiful 
subjects.  This  was  good  policy,  be- 
cause when  men  grew  in  wisdom 
they  observed  that  the  priest  ^s  magic 
was  not  always  successful.  Thus  the 
king  avoided  loss  of  prestige  by  shift- 
ing the  blame  to  one  of  his  lieges, 
which  is  a  way  kings  have.  As  we 
have  just  observed,  magic  did  not  al- 
ways succeed.    So  just  as  the  king  got 

[55] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

rid  of  his  responsibility  by  delegating 
his  powers  as  magician  or  priest  to 
the  medicine  man,  so  the  medicine 
man  in  his  turn  handed  on  the  res- 
ponsibility to  the  Lord.  He  taught 
the  benighted  folk  to  ask  the  Lord, 
or  Zeus,  or  whatever  name  he  hap- 
pened to  go  by  at  the  time,  to  send 
rain,  or  whatever  else  they  might 
want.  This  is  the  origin  of  prayer. 
And  of  course  as  the  medicine  man 
never  did  ami:liing  without  a  fee,  it 
could  not  be  expected  that  the  Lord 
would  send  rain  for  nothing.  Hence 
arose  the  custom  of  passing  round 
the  plate,  which  is  a  substitute  for  the 
medicine  man's  hat. 


[56] 


Chapteb  XV. 

Marriage  and  the  Gentler  Sex. 

In  Ancient  Rome  departed  souls 
were  regarded  as  spirits  and  wor- 
shipped. They  were  looked  upon 
with  great  dread.  There  was  a  cer- 
tain hole  in  the  ground  by  which  these 
spirits  came  up  from  the  lower  world, 
and  a  stone  called  the  Lapis  Manalis 
was  placed  over  the  hole  to  keep  them 
down.  And  the  name  Di  Manes  the 
good  gods,  was  given  to  placate  them. 
This  is  why  you  are  addressed  as 
''Gentle  Reader ''  in  the  Preface, 
which  see,  if  you  haven't  seen  it  al- 
ready. On  the  same  principle  men 
today  call  women  the  gentler  sex,  al- 
though they  know  very  well  that  'Hhe 
female  of  the  species  is  more  deadly 
than  the  male.''  N.  B.  The  lapis 
manalis  mentioned  above  is  not  to  be 

[57] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

confused  with  another  lapis  manalis 
which  was  used  in  imitative  magic  to 
procure  rain  by  pouring  water  over 
it.  The  word  manalis  in  this  case  is 
derived  not  from  manes  but  from 
manare,  to  flow.  I  mention  this  just 
to  show  that  I  am  up-to-date  in  order 
that  I  may  gain  credence  for  other 
statements  which  I  have  not  time  to 
prove. 

In  a  former  chapter  reference  was 
made  to  our  system  of  pair  marriage 
and  one  reason  was  advanced  for  its 
origin.  But  anthropologists  of  an 
economic  turn  of  mind  put  forward 
another  explanation.  They  maintain 
that  the  food  supply  regulated  the 
marriage  customs.  When  the  food 
supply  was  abundant  and  it  was  easy 
to  support  many  wives,  polygamy 
flourished.  When  the  food  supply  was 
very  scanty  polyandry  was  the  rule. 
Pair  marriage  is  the  happy  medium 
no   doubt   and  while   it   is   the   best 

[58] 


UP-TO-DATE 

that  has  yet  been  tried  it  is  not  free 
from  objections.  It  falsely  assumes 
that  every  woman  can  find  a  mate  and 
that  every  man  can  afford  a  wife,  and 
in  doing  so  unsexes  a  vast  proportion 
of  the  human  race.  If  a  change  in 
our  marriage  customs  arises  it  mil 
come  neither  from  philosophy,  nor 
from  religion.  It  is  to  economic  con- 
ditions principally  that  we  must  look. 
It  is  hard  to  predict  what  form  the 
change  will  take  with  a  large  increase 
of  wealth  under  the  domination  of  a 
plutocratic  class.  It  should  be  re- 
membered too  that  our  present  cus- 
tom of  pair  marriage  is  individu- 
alistic and  is  the  greatest  bulwark 
against  socialism.  And  so  firmly  is  it 
established  that  socialism  does  not 
dare  to  attack  it  openly.  But  if  so- 
cialism should  undermine  it  from  be- 
neath and  plutocracy  crush  it  from 
above,  a  change  of  some  kind  is  in- 
evitable.    Even   as   things    are,    the 

[59] 


\ 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

principle  is  not  absolute,  for  a  com- 
promise is  possible  through  divorce 
and  morganatic  marriages.  When 
once  the  change,  whatever  it  be,  is  ef- 
fected and  becomes  universal,  phi- 
losophy will  find  it  rational  and  reli- 
gion will  pronounce  it  right. 

The  feeling  that  departed  spirits 
are  regarded  with  dread  and  their 
return  to  this  world  considered  unde- 
sirable is  evident  from  the  Eoman 
practice  of  carrying  out  the  dead  with 
the  feet  first  in  the  belief  that  the 
spirits  will  not  be  able  to  find  their 
way  back.  This  feeling  survives  today. 
In  a  recent  issue  of  a  certain  news- 
paper a  correspondent  complained 
that  the  roads  leading  to  the  cemetery 
were  in  very  bad  condition.  *^  These 
roads  ought  to  be  kept  in  good  order,'' 
said  the  writer,  whose  wife  by  the 
way  lay  at  the  point  of  death,  *^so  that 
the  departed  may  be  taken  to  the 
cemetery  in  safety!'' 

[60] 


\ 


Chapter  XVI. 

Dress. 

Anthropology  finds  that  dress  has 
nothing  to  do  with  decency  or  mod- 
esty.' Many  savages  go  about  clad 
only  in  their  native  atmosphere  and 
are  very  decent  and  modest  notwith- 
standing. The  evening  dress  of  our 
women  greatly  shocks  orientals  and 
our  women  would  be  greatly  shocked 
if  a  man  appeared  at  afternoon  tea 
in  a  bathing  suit.  It  is  all  a  matter 
of  use  and  wont,  time  and  place. 

The  notion  that  ideas  and  words 
referring  to  procreation  are  indecent 
is  modern.  In  Ancient  Greece  such 
ideas  and  words  were  treated  as  any 
others  or  they  were  regarded  as 
comic.  Nowadays  some  people  are 
afraid  to  mention  the  word  ''leg''  in 

1 W.   G.   Sumner's    "Folkways". 

[61] 


v-^ 


K^    .l/M^    ANTHROPOLOGY 


'  a  mixed  audience  and  insist  on  sub- 
stituting '4inib'\  The  height  of  ab- 
surdity is  reached  in  the  case  of  the 
old  maid  who  draped  the  legs  of  her 
piano,  tables,  and  chairs. 

Some  anthropologists  claim  that 
the  custom  of  raising  the  hat  arose 
from  the  fact  that  originally  only 
bigwigs  like  Kings,  Popes  and  Card- 
inals were  allowed  to  wear  hats  or 
crowns,  while  slaves  and  serfs  went 
bare-headed.  Later  when  common 
folk  became  privileged  to  wear  hats 
they  had  to  remove  them  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  afore-mentioned  bigwigs. 
Finally,  remo^T.ng  the  hat  became 
customary  for  all  whenever  one  man 
wished  to  show  respect  to  another.'' 

Xot  so  far-fetched,  however,  is  the 
explanation  that  the  custom  arose  at 
a  time  when  all  men  were  thieves  and 
the  reason  for  removing  your  hat 
when  passing  another  man  was  sim- 

2  S.  Baring  Gould's   "Strange  Survivals". 

[62] 


UP-TO-DATE 

ply  that  the  hat  being  the  only  part 
of  your  clothing  which  is  not  fastened 
to  your  person,  you  had  to  hold  on  to 
it  if  you  did  not  want  it  stolen.  That 
this  is  the  true  explanation  is  the 
more  apparent  when  you  note  that 
women  do  not  raise  their  hats  in  salu- 
tation for  the  very  sufficient  reason 
that  there  is  no  need,  since  they  are 
fastened  to  their  persons  with  pins 
like  any  other  part  of  their  clothing. 


[63] 


Chapter  XVII. 

Cookery. 

Why  are  dinner  plates  round  and 
not  square?  Because  the  plate,  you 
must  know,  is  a  survival  of  the  solar 
wheel,  which  is  the  symbol  of  the  sun- 
god.*  And  the  sun-god  was  the  god, 
par  excellence,  of  fertility,  who  in  con- 
junction with  mother  earth  produces 
everything  you  eat,  both  animal  and 
vegetable.  Originally  an  ox  or  other 
animal  was  sacrificed  on  a  wheel  and 
parts  of  the  victim  were  distributed 
among  the  worshippers.  By  a  later 
refinement  plates  were  constructed 
circular  in  shape  like  the  solar  wheel, 
and  the  material  used  was  earthen- 
ware out  of  deference  to  Father  Sun 
and  Mother  Earth  respectively. 

The  sacrificial  victim  is  now  prop- 

3  A.   B.    Cook's    "Zeus",   Vol.   I. 

[64] 


UP-TO-DATE 

erly  cooked  and  decently  distributed 
at  a  table  with  a  white  cloth  on  it, 
which  was  originally  the  robe  of  the 
officiating  priest. 

Speaking  of  Father  Sun  and  Mother 
Earth,  it  might  be  appropriate  to  ex- 
plain that  herein  lies  the  mystery  at- 
tached to  the  number  three.    Father 
Sun  is  one,  Mother  Earth  is  two  and 
Everything  Else  is  Three.     By  that 
Trinity  the  Universe  is  accounted  for. 
When  a  fowl  is  being  dressed  why 
does  the  careful  housewife  remove  the 
gall-bag?     Today  we  say  that  if  the 
gall  were  not  removed  it  would  spoil 
the  taste  of  the  fowl.    But  this  is  not 
the  original  reason.    For  the  origmal 
reason  you  must  go  back  to  the  wor- 
ship   of    Hera    among    the    Ancient 
Greeks.  Hera  was  a  goddess  who  pre- 
sided over  marriage  and  in  her  rit- 
ual the  gall  was  extracted  from  the 
sacrificial  victim  in   order   that   the 
married  couple  might  live   together 

[65] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

without  bitterness,  it  being  naturally 
assumed  that  bitterness  would  cer- 
tainly develop  between  them  unless 
divine  intervention  were  procured. 
Nothing  is  clearer  from  a  study  of 
primitive  society  than  the  fact  that 
the  sexes  are  naturally  antipathetic. 


[66] 


Chapter  XVIII. 

Wedding  Rings,  Church  Bells, 
National  Flags. 

In  the  marriage  service  the  man 
gives  the  woman  a  ring  as  he  utters 
the  words:  '^With  all  my  worldly 
goods  I  thee  endow.''  Three  things 
require  elucidation.  Why  is  a  ring 
given?  Why  is  only  one  ring  given? 
Why  does  the  man  not  wear  a  wed- 
ding ring!  First  then,  why  a  ring? 
Anthropologists  are  divided  on  this 
question.  One  theory  is  that  the  ring, 
being  a  circle,  that  is,  a  thing  that  has 
no  beginning  and  no  end,  is  a  symbol 
of  immortality  and  that  in  the  mar- 
riage service  the  man  gives  it  to  the 
woman  as  a  symbol  of  his  undying 
love.  Another  theory  is  that  the  ring, 
being  a  circle  like  the  equator,  which 
embraces  the  earth,  is  symbolic  of  the 

[67] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

earth  itself  and  therefore  when  the 
man  gives  the  woman  the  ring,  he  is 
symbolically  giving  her  the  earth,  be- 
lieving that  she  will  be  satisfied  with 
nothing  less. 

Why  only  one  ring?  No  doubt 
economy  has  something  to  do  with  it 
especially  when  we  remember  that 
polygamy  preceded  pair  marriage. 
Obviously  one  ring  for  each  wife 
would  be  about  as  much  expense  as  a 
man  could  stand.  Obviously  too,  the 
reason  why  the  man  did  not  wear  a 
ring  instead  of  the  woman  was  that 
he  could  not  get  them  all  on,  if  for 
example  he  married  as  many  wives 
as  Solomon. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  the  barber  ^s 
pole  with  its  stripes  of  white  and  red? 
In  the  days  when  bleeding  was  the 
cure  for  everything  the  barber  was 
also  the  surgeon  and  the  white  stripe 
represented  a  white  bandage  and  the 

[G8] 


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red  of  course  indicated  blood.*  The 
sign  is  still  appropriate.  The  red 
still  represents  blood  and  the  white 
stands  for  lather. 

Where  you  have  a  blue  stripe  as 
well  as  a  red  and  white,  it  is  a  con- 
cession to  the  aristocratic  customer. 
Next! 

And  why  have  so  many  national 
flags  the  colors  red,  white,  and  blue? 
The  red  and  the  blue  symbolize  the 
blood  of  the  enemy  you  are  about  to 
slay,  and  it  is  as  well  to  have  some 
white  cloth  handy  in  case  you  wish  to 
surrender. 

Anthropology  explains  the  origin 
of  many  nursery  rhymes.  Take  the 
well-known, 

Old  Mother  Hubbard 
Went  to  the  cupboard 
To  fetch  her  poor  dog  a  bone. 
When  she  got  there 

*  Hazlitt's    "Dictionary  of  Faiths   and  Folklore". 

[69] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

The  cupboard  was  bare 
And  so  the  poor  dog  had  none. 

Anthropology  explains  this  empti- 
ness of  the  cupboard  by  citing  the  old 
custom  of  burying  an  animal  under 
the  foundation  of  a  building  as  a  sa- 
crifice to  Mother  Earth  to  placate 
her  for  disturbing  her  interior  econ- 
omy. Thus  every  house  had  its  skel- 
eton and  from  this  in  course  of  time 
arose  the  saying  that  every  house  had 
a  skeleton  in  the  cupboard.  Now  old 
Mother  Hubbard  believed  with  the 
whole  country-side  that  there  was  a 
skeleton  in  her  cupboard  and  there- 
fore she  fully  expected  to  feed  it  to 
her  dog.  But  of  course  there  was  no 
skeleton  and  so  the  poor  dog  had  to 
go  without  his  bone. 

The  more  up-to-date  anthropolog- 
ists, however,  are  beginning  to  think 
that  many  explanations  of  origin  are 
too  fanciful  and  that  it  is  wiser  to 

[70] 


UP-TO-DATE 

adopt  a  more  natural  explanation 
whenever  it  fits  the  conditions  and 
tallies  with  one's  own  immediate  ex- 
perience. In  the  case  under  consider- 
ation I  would  suggest  that  the  reason 
for  the  absence  of  the  bone  in  old 
Mother  Hubbard's  cupboard  is  sim- 
ply that  the  dog  had  been  there  be- 
forehand. 

^Vhen  YOU  obtain  a  conclusion  like 
this  from  immediate  experience  in- 
stead of  from  ideas  remote  in  space 
and  time,  you  call  it  Adjacent^^^^ji- 
thmpo[ogy. 

Anthropology  finds  that  once  a 
custom  is  established  it  dies  very 
hard  indeed.  For  example  most  men 
continue  to  wind  their  watches  at 
night  although  it  would  be  much  bet- 
ter to  do  it  in  the  morning  when  they 
are  perfectly  sober,  and  thus  avoid 
the  reckless  bursting  of  watch  springs. 
But  when  watches  were  first  invented 
they  would  only  go  for  about  twelve 

['1] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

hours,  if  they  went  at  all,  and  so  per- 
force they  had  to  be  wound  at  night. 
Xor  could  they  be  used  in  the  da3i:ime 
because  of  their  size,  which  was  equal 
to  that  of  a  turnip.  And  the  proof  of 
that  is  that  even  to  this  day  in  many 
parts  of  Britain  a  large  watch  is  scof- 
iingly  referred  to  as  a  '^turnip". 

Church  bells  too,  which  summoned 
the  worshippers  to  church  in  clockless 
days,  will  no  doubt  keep  on  jangling 
till  the  crack  of  doom,  although  there 
are  no  worshippers  so  poor  now-a- 
days  as  to  be  without  a  watch  or  clock. 
Some  anthropologists  maintain,  how- 
ever, that  the  true  origin  of  church 
bells  was  not  to  summon  the  wor- 
shippers but  to  scare  away  the  devil. 
It  is  a  well-knoAvn  practice  with  sav- 
ages to  kick  up  a  great  row  with  all 
sorts  of  noisy  instruments  to  scare 
away  evil  spirits.^ 

5  "The   Golden   Bough". 

[72] 


Chapter  XIX. 

Utility  of  Anthropology. 

In  Joshua  VI,  20,  it  is  written,  ^^So 
the  people  shouted  when  the  priests 
blew  with  the  trumpets,  and  it  came 
to  pass  when  the  people  heard  the 
sound  of  the  trumpet,  and  the  people 
shouted  with  a  great  shout,  that  the 
wall  fell  down  flat'\ 

Now  some  anthropologists  see  in 
this  an  example  of  coercive  magic 
practised  by  the  priests,  the  exact 
process  by  which  it  was  done  being 
expurgated  from  the  text  because  all 
magical  rites  had  by  this  time  fallen 
into  great  disrepute.  Whenever  the 
text  which  you  quote  does  not  prop- 
erly bolster  up  your  thesis,  the  wise 
anthropologist  says  that  the  text  has 
been  expurgated.  A  more  rational 
explanation  of  the  fall  of  the  walls  of 

[73] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

Jericho  is  that  it  was  a  case  of  syn- 
chronism. For  those  whose  musical 
education  has  been  neglected  syn- 
chronism is  a  hard  thing  to  under- 
stand. It  will  perhaps  be  made  clear 
by  the  following  extract  taken  from  a 
despatch  of  the  St.  Louis  Special  to 
the  New  York  Times, 

**  Musicians  and  architects  are 
agreed  that  the  shattering  of  the 
glass  skylights  of  Festival  Hall  at  the 
World's  Fair  was  caused  by  the  vi- 
bratory force  from  harsh  notes  played 
on  the  organ  by  some  unskilled  mu- 
sician. ' ' 

Now  the  shattering  of  the  glass  sky- 
lights by  the  vibratory  force  from 
notes  on  the  organ  is  a  scientific  fact. 
It  is  called  synchronism.  But  in 
stating  that  an  unskilled  musician 
brought  down  the  house  by  playing 
harsh  notes,  the  aforesaid  musicians 
and  architects  were  laboring  under  a 
delusion.     Neither   an  infant  nor   a 

[74] 


UP-TO-DATE 

blacksmith  can  play  harsh  notes  on  a 
well-tuned   organ.     When  the    stops 
are  set  the  tone  is  always  the  same 
no  matter  who  presses  down  the  key 
or  how  it  is  pressed  do^vn.     Harsh 
notes,  had  they  been  produced,  would 
not  have  disturbed  the  skylight.     It 
was  pure,  resonant  tones  with  their 
full     and     regular     vibrations     that 
caused  the  glass  to  vibrate  in  sjm- 
pathy  and  brought  it  down   on  the 
heads  of  the  audience. 

Now  this  principle  of  synchronism 
has  only  to  be  studied  and  the  musi- 
cian ought  to  be  able  to  state  in  any 
given  case  just  what  note  or  notes 
will  cause  any  particular  object  to 
vibrate.  This  applied  science  would 
be  of  inestimable  value  to  mankind. 
High  officials,  like  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  who  have  to  dis- 
locate their  arms  shaking  hands  with 
lioi  polloi,  would  give  many  dol- 
lars if  they  could  obtain  from  a  scien- 

[75] 


ANTHROPOLOGY 

tist  the  correct  note  for  making  their 
hand  vibrate.  At  receptions  all  they 
would  have  to  do  would  be  to  stand 
still  and  whistle  the  proper  note.  Syn- 
chronism would  do  the  rest. 

On  a  hot  summer  night  you  could 
fix  a  palm  leaf  at  the  head  of  your 
bed,  whistle  the  s}Tnpathetic  note  and 
go  to  sleep  lulled  by  the  cooling 
Zephyr  from  the  vibrating  fan. 

And  when  the  science  has  become 
sufficiently  developed  scientists  should 
be  able  to  give  us  the  note  or  notes 
that  will  shake  men  and  walls  and 
battleships  like  the  glass  on  the  roof 
of  Festival  Hall  at  the  World's  Fair. 
The  horrors  of  war  will  be  overcome. 
Carnage  and  mutilation  will  be  eli- 
minated from  the  battlefield.  The 
infantry  soldier  will  advance  playing 
a  penny  whistle  instead  of  firing  a 
rifle,  machine-gun  squads  will  carry 
phonographs  and  huge  organs  on 
motor-trucks  will  take  the  place   of 

[76] 


UP-TO-DATE 

artillery,  all  regulated  to  shake  the 
life  out  of  the  enemy. 

The  curse  of  the  military  mind  is 
its  lack  of  brains.  It  is  not  beyond 
the  imitative  stage  of  the  savage.  One 
army  introduces  the  machine-gun,  or 
the  aeroplane,  or  liquid  fire,  and  the 
other  replies  with  the  same  weapons. 
The  nation  that  vnll  gain  the  military 
supremacy  in  the  next  war  is  the  na- 
tion that  discards  soldiers  as  such  al- 
together and  employ  artistes  in  their 
stead.  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  that  na- 
tion were  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, a  nation  which  has  had  the  good 
sense  to  make  a  college  professor  its 
Chief  Executive. 


[77] 


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